Rick Green: 0:12

Welcome to intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live. Thanks so much for joining us today. My name is Rick Green. I'm a former Texas legislator, and America's constitution coach. I'm here with David Barton and Tim Barton, Tim Barton's national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. David Barton is the founder of WallBuilders and America's premier historian, tons of books and videos and fantastic material that will educate you equip you inspire you all available, right now at WallBuilders.com, that's WallBuilders.com . And then our radio site, WallBuildersLive.com. That's where you can get archives of the program. If you're a first time listener today, you can go back in there and find some of those good news Fridays, to encourage you, some foundations of freedom Thursdays to dig deep into the principles of the nation as we answer your questions about those things. And then Monday through Wednesday, typically, we have an interview with someone that's out there on the front lines, that's influencing the culture in a positive way, restoring biblical principles, restoring those things that will make our nation once again be a great nation and a blessing to the people of America, but also people around the world. That's the really cool thing about applying biblical worldview to a culture is that you're truly salt and light, you not only preserve the culture, not only preserve the meat, you're actually bringing out the best flavor, you're making it the best that it can be. And people thrive, and they have abundance, and they have blessings. Deuteronomy describes all of this, when we do things, God's way we get not only is it right, it works best, and we get great blessings out of it. So if we do that, as a nation, we are blessed here, but also then we become a blessing to people around the world. And that's what we're restoring through WallBuilders. We're helping you and your communities, to be the catalyst for restoring those biblical values and constitutional principles. Hope that you've signed up as one of our Constitution coaches hosting the classes there in your home or at your church. There's all kinds of ways that you can be involved, check it out at WallBuilders.com and we'll have links there today to all the different things that we're going to talk about from the things available to you at WallBuilders.com and also the things available to you from our special guests today. Alright, David and Tim, we've actually got a friend on the program, a friend to the program and a friend a WallBuilders, speaker at pastors conferences for WallBuilders and other things. Christy Stutzman with us, her... she served in the legislature in Indiana, her husband, Congressman in Washington, DC from Indiana, and now running there again, but she's got a new book out, we're going to be talking about that book. But it's great to see people that are involved in all areas of the culture. And of course with them, it is all areas of the culture arts and entertainment, politics, you name it.

David Barton: 2:30

Yeah, Marlin and Christi both are very involved. Marlin was also a state legislator, State House member and then a state senate member, and they've had business and they've had education, and she's in fine arts. And so they've been involved in a lot, but coming from Indiana, and they're from a really, really pretty conservative part of the state. Indiana, generally, overall, is conservative. And they're from a conservative part of the state. Significantly, they really kind of seen what happens when folks don't get involved, like we're starting to see right now. with school boards, people are figuring out hey, this has gotten away from us last few years. And so Christy has been involved grassroots, Marlin who's been involved grassroots, she's come out with a really good practical book on how and why folks need to get involved, how they can get involved. If it seems like a hurdle to you, and you don't feel like you're comfortable getting involved, here's things you can do. Because there's some stuff that every single person can do, that will make a difference in the area where they live. And it's not just a matter of I don't know how to do it and so I'm gonna pack up and go home and not do anything. She really does a great job of showing you just little things you can do. If you're not comfortable in that process. Here's some things you can do that will help. And so they're very practical. And they were, as you mentioned, Rick, they were great friends of WallBuilders. When Marlin was in Congress for a number of years, he was speaking our pastors conferences, but he was one of the guys that's a lot like some of the guys who've been interviewing in recent weeks and months. He's a guy with just a solid constitutional conservative view, he's got a strong biblical view, his faith is very strong, his family is very strong, whether it's Josh Brecheen, or Eric Burlison or so many of these new guys that we have in the Congress, now, Marlon is one of those kinds of guys. And he's actually running for Congress again this year. I think the incumbent has gone out of there. And so it's an open seat, but it would be great to get him back in Congress because of the convictions but Christy has just been a real, real good friend, as has Marlin. Their family has been great friends of WallBuilders. And I'm really excited about the fact that she's kind of reaching out to help people get back involved in the process. And she's doing it from that fine arts background. It's not often you find a fine arts person who is really conservative and constitutional and whatnot. So she comes from a good perspective on this.

Rick Green: 4:49

Man, no kidding. It's hard to find people like that in fine arts. The left has dominated the arts for so many years. So it's great to have good people moving into that arena, just like everything else. So she'll be with When we returned from the break, Christy Stutzman, our special guest today you're listening to WallBuilders.

Tim Barton: 5:15

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Many today assert that religion is something private that it has no place in the public square and that it is incompatible with government. But the Founding Fathers believed exactly the opposite. They held that religion was absolutely necessary in order to maintain our free system of government. For example, John Adams declared we have no government armed with power capable of continuing with human passions unbridled by morality and religion, and signer of the Declaration, Benjamin Rush, similarly affirmed without religion, there can be no virtue and without virtue, there can be no liberty. And Liberty is the object and life of all Republican governments. The founding fathers understood that limited government required public morality from the people, and that public morality was produced by the Christian religion. For more information about the founding fathers views on religion and public life, go to WallBuilders.com .

Rick Green: 6:14

Welcome back to WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. Great to have Christy Stutzman with us, new book out The Spiritual Price of Political Silence. Yeah, that's right, folks. Silence in the face of evil is evil itself. Christy, God bless you. Thanks for all your family does to preserve freedom for the next generation. You guys have served in so many different areas, state and federal politics, all of that. And you kind of bring that to a head for us as Americans to recognize we all need to be in the fight. Thank you for your time today.

Christy Stutzman: 6:40

Well, thank you so much for having me. I tell you, I've admired your ministry and your family for so many years. So thank you for what you're doing.

Rick Green: 6:46

Well, right back at you. And excited about the book. We need this right now. Because I think people are right on the fence, you know, they're seeing the evil, they're seeing the negative in the country, and they're going okay, I think I need to do something I've always been on the sidelines, I think you might just push them over the edge. Is that kind of your goal here?

Christy Stutzman: 7:03

For sure. It is, you know, it's our birthright as Americans to be involved. And I think we've been intimidated, especially as you know, people of faith, from speaking out too boldly but I think right now we are seeing the results of our political silence. There's a spiritual price we're paying in our culture right now. And you know the entire world is watching us as Americans, and they always have been. And you know, if we don't get our house in order, we're not going to have the ability to be salt and light in the rest of the world.

Rick Green: 7:30

Amen. I want to make sure our audience knows, we're talking to everyone right now, because everybody has a role to play. I asked Kirk Cameron, this in our Biblical Citizenship course in the first night as an actor, how weird it was for him to get so involved in this kind of thing. And sometimes people think when you and I are talking, you know, you were a state rep, I was a state rep, your husband in Congress, all that stuff. But I don't think they know, you know, that you're an author and a music composer, and you do all these other things, I mean... and I bring that up, because I want to say to our audience, I don't care if you're in music, if you're in the arts, entertainment, journalism, what most people think of as ministry, you know, education. Everyone has a role here for you has that been different to bridge those worlds of kind of, you know, the arts and entertainment, and politics itself? I think you're a great example of we all have a role to play. So I'm kind of asking about 10 questions in one here, but you're really good at this, so go ahead.

Christy Stutzman: 8:22

Yeah, I talked about it in the book too where I just did not pay attention in civics class. You know, I loved history and everything, but I just wasn't really paying attention like I should have been in civics because I was into music and drama and, you know, productions and things like that. And so that was my world, although I loved American history. And I was raised by a family who really made sure that we knew our Judeo Christian founding and all that, but, you know, there's a chapter in the book called, I Don't Do Politics, and I've heard that over and over again, because it's just so ugly, and it's just overwhelming, and people don't know where to start. And if I can do it, you know, someone who was heavily involved in the arts, anyone can do it.

Rick Green: 9:01

Amen. Amen. And, and even in that arena, right? Like, it kind of crosses... both crossover, because your values about what you care about for the country, and how faith influences everything, then also influences how you do music and how you do in what you write, right?

Christy Stutzman: 9:17

Oh it definitely does. You know, I think everything that God gives us should be used for His glory. And so any gifts you have, whether it's in the arts, whether it's in finance, or business, or whatever it is, we should be using it all for His glory and using it for, you know, positive influence in our culture and our world. So yeah, I mean, everything that you have at your disposal, but you know, even if you don't understand how civics works, and that's not your, you know, expertise, there's something you can do, to be involved and to make a difference, whether it's in your community in your family, and I talked about this in the book that it actually starts I mean, where does... who determines American culture? Well, our families do, and our churches do, our communities do but it starts with us. And I kind of just like, give us a long look in the mirror and go, all right, we're Americans, and we have the tools given to us to change this, to write societal wrongs. And if we don't... if we're sitting around complaining about the culture and things like that, we only have to look in the mirror to see who's to blame.

Rick Green: 10:17

Amen. Oh, so many directions we could go with that. I mean, right there, just the idea of duty, this was given to us, what's our responsibility? You know, and too much of this blaming other people, and it's, you know, whatever the people in Washington are doing, or at our state capitol, hey, we're responsible.

Christy Stutzman: 10:32

We're a representative form of government. They're a reflection of us, you know? So we've got to be careful and do our due diligence to make sure that we're not just, you know, listening to the talking points and believing everything we hear. And I really encourage people to find ways and I actually get into real practical steps on how you can actually go meet your local, you know, your representative, whether it's a state or senator from your state, or you can go meet your school board members or Commissioner candidates, there's different ways that you can actually meet these people. I know, one lady here in Indiana, who makes it a point to meet almost everyone on her ballot before she votes for them. She won't will not vote for them unless she's actually met with... and she takes a lot of time to figure out ways to meet them.

Rick Green: 11:15

I love that! No, that's fantastic! I mean, and see, now a lot of people think, oh, that's impossible, I can't meet a state representative, or I can't meet a congressman or whatever. Absolutely, you can.

Christy Stutzman: 11:26

Especially in this day and age, I mean, you can find who their campaign managers are, you can find out, you know, like, where they're going to be for different events, and you get invitations, you know, to different events, you just have to sign up for their email list and find out, you know, how to get involved. And once you get involved, and you know... and you've actually worked with them on the campaign trail, man, it's even more easy, you know, to stay involved and actually keep them accountable, because that's your job as a citizen of this nation is, you know, to keep them accountable for what to do.

Rick Green: 11:54

Well, we've both been there, right? If somebody was out knocking on doors for you are standing at the polls, and they call because they got a question or comment about a bill or whatever, man, you take that call, because you have a relationship with them. And you know, they were, you know, involved before, and even somebody that was against you in a campaign but you have familiarity with them, you take the call, you have the conversation, it's so important

Christy Stutzman: 12:14

Yeah, as your constituent. And I talked about this in the book and all the practical ways to be involved, how to lobby your legislator. And if you have a good legislator, which you know, most state reps want to represent their constituency. When you go down to the statehouse personally, and want to talk to your representative and your senator. I mean, you are the star, you're the one... you're the person they want to talk to you because you're their employer. So they better take time to listen to you over you know, all the lobbyists. And that's what I always did, I told my staff, that's priority, right there.

Rick Green: 12:45

The boss is in the house, right, when you show up? Okay, BooksByChristy.org is the best place to... and I assume you want them to go there first to to get the book and then... but it'll be available other places, but then they can learn more as well, book you in to speak, learn about some of your other books as well. BooksByChristy.org and it's y at the end, Christy, not ie, BooksByChristy.org . Christie, I want to go back to the entertainment side of this as well. Because you know that again, we've kind of had this secular spiritual split mindset where good and holy people only go into ministry meaning like the pulpit or you know, going on a mission field somewhere instead of recognizing, hey, the arts and entertainment is a ministry, politics is a ministry. It's all His the earth is the Lord's the fullness thereof, you're doing that in arts and entertainment. And we have missed that so big for the last 50 years, the left took over that arena, are we doing any better? I mean, are you seeing others do the same? Do you feel like you know, with VidAngel and all these efforts that are out there right now, are we starting to gain a little ground back in arts and entertainment?

Christy Stutzman: 13:50

I do believe we are. I think it's actually gaining ground quickly, faster than I expected it to, because it used to be we would go to a you know, quote unquote, Christian film or movie and be kind of like, oh that was pretty Yeah, embarrassed that that was our people, right? good but it was not a comparison... Right, and I think we are upping our game big time. And I think it's because it's market driven. And we are making sure that our voices are heard in that arena as well. And so the demand for excellence, especially from Gen X'ers and on down is going to be pretty high, we're going to expect some, you know, some better things. And I think everybody's kind of upping their game in that department. And, you know, I'm in more live productions and musical theater. And I feel like that is the next mission field. There's so much junk out there. And I feel like we need to fill the space there as well. And make sure that we have uplifting, encouraging excellence in the arts.

Rick Green: 14:47

I love that. I love that so much. I want more of that. Okay, last kind of segment here. Just the whole thing that you write about in the book about the philosophies that really have changed the culture and how these humanistic philosophy have, over the last, you know, really 50-60 years, undermined our faith influence instead of, you know, our Biblical faith influence in the culture that started the country and that we were built upon, we've allowed these humanistic ideas to radically transform who we are, give us a little bit of that, and then we'll get the rest in the book, but give us a little bit of an understanding of what's happened.

Christy Stutzman: 15:21

So, boy, back, right, even before like World War II, there was... and it actually goes back further, as I kept digging, it was like, wow, this goes way, way back. Deistic, you know, philosophies and things like that, that kind of took root here in there. But it really became more mainstream when you had these critical theorists coming over from Germany, before World War II, coming into our higher education, universities and things like that. And they infiltrated and there was a concerted effort and an organized effort to infiltrate America. And it was kind of a new thing, they had experimented in Russia, and had some failures there. And what they do is they always regroup and go, well, we didn't figure out our utopia there, because, and they have some excuse, you know it's never a failure.

Rick Green: 16:13

Always have a reason, right? Yeah.

Christy Stutzman: 16:15

You know, so they're going to try on another unsuspecting, you know, civilization over here. And so they were tweaking it, I think is, I don't know if I worded it that way in the book, but they were kind of tweaking their philosophy. So they decided to, you know, try a new approach. And that was to make our educational system, their grounds for creating a next generation of humanists, socialists. And they have gone at it for the last 50 years. And I think the church was kind of caught unawares, and there was definitely a split in the church around the turn of the century. And where you see some kind of, you know, push back at it, and then others just kind of like swallowing it and believing it. And now you're seeing this split in the church, even today, where there's this progressive mentality and an exception of, they're accepting evolution and things like that. And then the other side is pushing back at it. But I really feel like we missed the boat in our education system, because they were heavily at work in that... in our education system, across the board for years. And so now we have a lot of work to do. In fact, I know there's a movement now to just kind of pull out of that. And so there's, there's a lot of work to do. But that's kind of how it crept in. And we were just not prepared.

Rick Green: 17:28

We were almost asleep at the wheel, I'd say, you know, they went all in, they understood that was the place to turn it around and it...

Christy Stutzman: 17:36

They targeted our kids.

Rick Green: 17:37

Yeah, absolutely. And so it was more, I guess than just a almost new age everybody just do whatever they want, feel good kind of thing. It was literally about tearing down the foundation of what the country was built on.

Christy Stutzman: 17:50

Family.

Rick Green: 17:50

Yeah, the family. Yeah.

Christy Stutzman: 17:51

Yeah, the nuclear family, they said was priority number one to make sure that because that was the biggest threat because authoritarianism represented the authority of God. And so there was no God in their minds. And so really, it comes down to no God. I mean, you know, the Bible says, The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And technically, it just says, no God. So they were trying to get rid of God in every way possible. So the church, people of faith, any answer we brought to them was not acceptable, because it wasn't from man's intellect. And so the government just decided, you know, what is science and what is not? I mean, you don't see creationists, you know, on the Discovery Channel being, you know, touted as experts on different fields, you know, in the the discoveries they do, and yet, all of the people beforehand that did all these great discoveries, believed, you know, in creation, they believe the Bible, they follow God's rules and natural law. So yeah, it was definitely a humanistic point of view. And it was all man centered. And it was basically them just saying, there is no God. I don't want God in my life.

Rick Green: 18:55

Yeah, amen. Amen. No, it was not follow the science, now. It's follow the man, who... and whatever the man says, if you actually follow the science, you're following the Creator that made everything.

Christy Stutzman: 19:06

Can't do that.

Rick Green: 19:07

Oh, man. So much that you cover in this, I really encourage people to get it. BooksByChristy.org is the best place to go. Christy enjoyed having you. Let's get you back again soon.

Christy Stutzman: 19:16

All right. Sounds good. Thank you so much.

Rick Green: 19:18

Stay with us, folks. We'll be back with David and Tim Barton.

Tim Barton: 19:28

Hi friends! This is Tim Barton of WallBuilders.This is a time when most Americans don’t know much about American history or even heroes of the faith. I know, oftentimes as parents, we”€™re trying to find good content for our kids to read. If you remember back in the Bible, the Book of Hebrews it has the Faith Hall of Fame, where they outlined the leaders of faith that had gone before them. Well, this is something that as Americans we really want to go back and outline some of these heroes not just of American history, but heroes of Christianity and our faith as well. I wanted to let you know about some biographical sketches we have available on our website. One is called, “€œThe Courageous Leaders Collection“€and this collection includes people like Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Scott Key, George Washington Carver, Susanna Wesley, even the Wright brothers. There’s a second collection called, “€œHeroes of History“€ in this collection you read about people like Benjamin Franklin, Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, the list goes on and on. This is a great collection for your young person to have and read. And, it’s a providential view of American and Christian history. This is available at WallBuilders.com .

Rick Green: 20:31

We're back here on WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. BooksByChristy.org , one more time on the website BooksByChristy.org . Thanks to Christy Stutzman for joining us, back with David and Tim now, and like we said before, man, we've got several areas of the culture covered here, arts and entertainment, politics, all of those areas need to be influenced by Christians, and we need to be infusing our principles there. So it's good to see them doing that and all of those areas.

Tim Barton: 20:54

Well, as she pointed out, one of the things that used to be well understood is if you looked at something like science, how many of the noted scientists were outspoken Christians, and part of what led to some of their massive and major discoveries, literally world changing discoveries was because of their Christian faith. And in modern culture, we have just so disconnected from the reality of what Christianity is and what that biblical foundation is. When we look at western civilization and so much the advancements made, there was a book that came out I don't know how many years ago now, but it's called The 5,000 Year Leap, and looking at how much changed because of the application of biblical principles. In much more modern or recent times this is what has been lost in culture. But certainly, when we look at what we focus on, if we do not make the connections of what Christianity is, and where it plays a part in culture, and education, we are going to be losing so many significant parts of what should be contributions, but should be part of the conversation, etc, going forward. And of course, so many things she mentioned, but dad, it just reminded me of a presentation you used to do. I don't know how many years ago, now. But when you went through some of these major scientists, some of their major contributions, and then highlighted some of the things they said about their faith and how their faith motivated them. And I just thought that was such a good connection, at least one recognition in my mind coming out of the out interview.

David Barton: 22:23

Yeah, there's that connection. And I really appreciate what she said too, about the fact that we, right now, we're seeing the results of our own spiritual silence. And we've been talking about that more in recent weeks and how

that revelation 21: 22:36

8 is really clear, that there is a hell and people do go to hell. But the top of the list are those that it says are fearful and cowardly. And those that don't have a backbone, those that are silent. And so the fact that she brought that out, I thought it was significant that we're paying a price for our spiritual silence in the political culture right now. But I also appreciated the fact that she was talking about, the... you know, even if you don't understand how civics works, there's still a lot you can do. And you need to get involved. And when you do, once you get involved, it's easier to hold others accountable. And I thought that was a great point too, that just getting in that process and taking from her, you know, as a fine arts kind of person, but she's a godly voice. But she's also a voice in politics and everything else around education, everything. So once you do get involved, it's easier to hold others accountable and it's easier to have that voice. But it is significant that she shows that courage. And I do think that that's going to be one of the things that turns it around. I saw some polling just this last week that I thought was really interesting is that it looks like even the Gen Z generation is starting to show some courage that we haven't seen from them in polling. And as some of the universities are trying to do their studies and their research and they call and do polling. They're really disappointed with these Gen Z's that don't want to participate with their polls anymore. I don't know if you guys saw this, but the... one of the, I think was out of Oregon, they were asking in their survey, they were asking students, how do you identify, asking Gen Z's How do you identify? And they were really disappointed because about 1/4 of the replies were well, that's none of your business. And they were getting answers like, well, I identify as an F-16 fighter plane, I identify as a Navy ship, you know. It was just ridiculous things and they said we are so disappointed in this generation, I go no, this is really good that they're not conforming to all this thing to put pressure on changing the culture. They're starting to think for themselves and stand up and have a voice and they're speaking out that they don't like the direction things are headed with all this identity stuff. So I think that Christie is really a good example of that. The book is a great book. She's very articulate, very soft spoken as you heard, but very sharp in what she has so it's going to be a fun book for people to get, and it's something you can share with your friends, friends at maybe a little reticent to get involved or they're not involved, or they believe these things, they're just not speaking out about them. It'd be a good book to share with them as well.

Rick Green: 25:08

All right, we're out of time for today, folks, it's been great having you with us talking about a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective, specifically for pastors. And I encourage you to check out these pastors conferences get your pastor to go to these, if you're a pastor listening, I promise you, it's going to be a good investment of your time. For both you and your congregation, it's so important for us to be equipped with truth. You know, I run a nonprofit organization with with hundreds of thousands of people following what we're doing tons of students that come through our programs, 13,000 constitution, coaches, I want to make sure that I'm putting the right information in front of them that we're training them well. And so I'm constantly looking to learn at whether it's at conferences, or studying different, you know, resources out there, we need to do the same. Pastors need to do the same. We need to make sure we're getting the right information in front of the people that God has given us the ability to have a voice with and for so I really encourage pastors to get to these conferences. Begin to study these things, and become a Liberty pastor. Make sure that you are a catalyst for a restoration of biblical values and constitutional principles in your community. One of the great tools to do that is Biblical Citizenship in modern America, check that out today at WallBuilders.com . You can get the DVDs and the books there. You can sign up to be a coach for free. We'll come alongside you and train you and equip you and help you to host that class at your church or in your living room or wherever you want to get people together. But I promise you you'll see great hope come out of those classes. Thanks so much for listening today. You've been listening to WallBuilders.